In general, undesirable skin disorders may be manifested in two aspects, i.e. discomfort sensations experienced on the skin and/or the appearance of visible cutaneous signs.
As regards the discomfort sensations, these may typically be itching, a sensation of heating, stinging and/or tautness. Representative visible cutaneous signs that may especially be mentioned include pruritus, dry patches, erythema and/or redness.
These skin disorders are more common in the more exposed areas of the body, namely the hands, the feet, the face and the scalp.
This cutaneous reactivity is conventionally reflected by the manifestation of signs of discomfort in response to an individual coming into contact with a triggering factor, which may have diverse origins.
These skin reactions may occur especially on areas subjected to certain daily or frequently repeated hygiene actions such as shaving, hair removal, cleaning with toiletry products or household products, the application of adhesives (dressings, patches, or the attachment of prostheses) or in the case of sporting or professional actions, or simply actions associated with the way of life and the use of clothing, tools or equipment that give rise to localized friction, or with the ingestion of certain foods. They may also be amplified by temperature variations, the wind and psychological stress.
It is also known that the risk of manifestation of these skin reactions is exacerbated in the case of sensitive skin.
Thus, the appearance of the signs of discomfort, which appear within minutes of the individual coming into contact with the triggering factor, is one of the essential characteristics of sensitive skin. These signs are mainly dysaesthesic sensations, more or less painful sensations experienced in an area of skin, for instance stinging, tingling, itching or pruritus, a sensation of heating, discomfort, tautness, etc. These subjective signs usually exist in the absence of visible clinical signs such as desquamation. It is nowadays known that these cutaneous intolerance reactions are especially associated with a release of neuropeptides by the nerve endings of the epidermis and the dermis.
In contrast with skin termed as “allergic”, the reactivity of sensitive skin is not a matter of an immunological process, i.e. it does not take place in response to the presence of an allergen.
Furthermore, its response mechanism is said to be “non-specific”. In this respect, it is to be distinguished from skins that manifest inflammatory and allergic reactions of the type such as dermatosis, eczema and/or ichthyosis, and with respect to which a certain number of treatments have already been proposed.
Document WO 02/28402 describes that probiotic microorganisms can have a beneficial effect in regulating skin hypersensitivity reactions such as the inflammatory and allergic reactions that are a matter of an immunological process. Also reported in “Probiotics in the management of atopic eczema”, Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 2000, volume 30, pages 1604-1610, is a study concerning the effect of probiotics on infantile immune mechanisms, for instance atopic dermatitis. Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,088 describes a dietary regimen especially comprising a polyunsaturated fatty acid and/or biotin, and a Bifidobacterium, which has prophylactic and therapeutic effects on animal dermatoses.
More recently, document EP 1 609 463 describes compositions comprising a probiotic microorganism with a mineral cation for the treatment of sensitive skin, and document EP 1 642 570 proposes for this same purpose specific mixtures of probiotic microorganisms. As regards document PCT/FR2006/050 768, it proposes, for the treatment of sensitive skin associated with dry skin, a combination of a probiotic microorganism with a polyunsaturated fatty acid and/or a polyunsaturated fatty acid ester.
Document EP 1 731 137 describes the use of a mixture of Lactobacillus paracasei or casei and Bifidobacterium lactis, which is useful for treating sensitive and/or dry skin.
Similarly, FR 2 876 029 discloses the use of a mixture of Bactobacillus paracasei or casei and Bifidobacterium longum for treating sensitive and/or dry skin.
However, none of these documents considers the use of an active agent in accordance with the present disclosure, in the form of a lysate.
EP 0 043 128 discloses the use of a microorganism lysate such as the Repair Complex CLR lysate, which is useful, for its part, in the process of repairing skin cell DNA.